Start international flights from Chandigarh airport: Badal

Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal today shot off a letter to civil aviation minister Ajit Singh asking him to "immediately" start international flights from Chandigarh airport as passengers from northern states were left with no option but to travel to Delhi.

In the letter, Badal reiterated his request to direct Air India and other Airlines to start international flights from Chandigarh.

The chief minister wrote that the air connectivity from Chandigarh has become all the more important now because of the upcoming International Airport at Mohali, which would connect the entire northern region comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and even the western part of Uttar Pradesh.

For want of any international flights from Mohali and Chandigarh daily, a large number of passengers from the northern states were left with no other option but to travel Delhi for boarding these flights, which was not only causing undue harassment to them but also resulting in huge wastage of time, Badal said.

He demanded "immediate" international flights to be made operational from Chandigarh otherwise the entire purpose of incurring huge expenditure on the prestigious airport would be defeated.

Badal also appealed to the union minister to start directing flights from Amritsar and Chandigarh to Nanded in Maharashtra for pilgrims who want to pay obeisance at Sri Hazur Sahib.